Tag Archives: potholes

The snow that visited us this year, has ravaged our roads. In a thirty-mile radius locally, cracks in the road have turned into miniature craters. We did not even have much snow, but the temperature was below freezing for a week.

There needs to be two things:

1) An electronic wand, hand-held, that can quickly map a miniature crater. Maybe someone can adapt the new hearing tests, which electronically map the ear.

2) There is a British start-up company, which is using plastic waste as part of materials to make roads. Cumbria is pioneering it. I know nothing of the physical and chemical makeup of roads, yet I wonder if plastic waste adds some elasticity? A pothole was filled in three times locally last summer and at the side of the road appeared a disc of tarmac and a hole. The bus went over it and out it popped.

3) Can it be used to fill in our potholes?

Macrebur is the brainchild of Toby McCartney and the key point here is that he has seen a version of it working in India. They use plastics to fill potholes and then melt it into place. His company converts waste household plastics to pellets, used in conjunction with bitumen, to make stronger roads.

It just needs someone with a bit of nous and money to help Mr McCartney fill our potholes.

Currently, the greatest fear is that motorists report genuine and opportunistic falls into potholes and the road budget for the year is soon exhausted. The country cannot afford these motorists to claim.